Unlike the Bharatiya Janata Party that has been busy preparing a road map for the 2017 assembly polls in Uttarakhand with national leaders regularly visiting the state, top Congress leaders are yet to make their presence felt.

Unlike the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) that has been busy preparing a roadmap for the 2017 assembly polls in Uttarakhand with national leaders regularly visiting the state, top Congress leaders are yet to make their presence felt.

Apart from Ambika Soni–the party in-charge of the state–who visited Dehradun earlier this week, no other central leaders of the Congress have made an appearance in the poll-bound state until now.

“There is infighting between senior state party leaders, who are busy lobbying against each other,” said a senior state Congress leader, who did not wish to be named.

“Under such circumstances, the central leadership of the party is taking time to appoint an election in-charge in the state,” he told Hindustan Times.

Both the Congress and BJP are yet to constitute election committees for the 2017 assembly polls.

The state election committee headed by chief minister Harish Rawat and with state Congress chief Kishore Upadhyay as the chairman, is likely to be constituted after November 15, said Congress leaders.

“It’s true that central party leaders have not been able to visit the state until now, but we have a plan chalked out and they will start visiting the state soon,” said Surendra Kumar, media in-charge of the chief minister.

“We are also in the process of constituting the state level election committee by end of the month,” he told HT.

The BJP has been busy in strategizing its poll campaign with a number of central party leaders, including union ministers JP Nadda and Dharmendra Pradhan and others like Shiv Prasad Sharma and Kailash Vijayvarghiya visiting the state.

State BJP leaders said they are busy preparing for the party’s “Parivartan Yatra” that will be attended by party chief Amit Shah on November 13. Other senior BJP leaders, including Smriti Irani are also scheduled to visit the state later this month.

The previous state election committee constituted for the 2012 assembly still exists, but the party will constitute a new committee soon, said Ajay Bhatt, state BJP chief.